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HS2 construction updates

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edwin_m

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I’m old enough & they were indeed “robust”. Mind you, I sometimes miss the days of pork pies with mustard & the Rugby “rock cakes” (scones anywhere else, but you get the picture).
I always assumed they came from "none eaten".
 
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LNW-GW Joint

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Eurotunnel also did this, but it was a phone number with recorded message, updated weekly, listed each TBM, how much dug each week, total length from each start point for each of the 11 TBMs
One difference is that with 40km of tunnel under the channel, Transmanche Link had to publish regular progress reports for their bankers and shareholders to believe they were making progress.
The first PR efforts of Eurotunnel were opaque statements like "more tunnel excavated in the last 6 weeks than in the previous 6 months" (without any actual distances quoted) - which fooled nobody!
With multiple shorter tunnels and much easier ground and access conditions, HS2 should be able to convince us it is making progress without an inch-by-inch commentary.
 

Bald Rick

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One difference is that with 40km of tunnel under the channel, Transmanche Link had to publish regular progress reports for their bankers and shareholders to believe they were making progress.
The first PR efforts of Eurotunnel were opaque statements like "more tunnel excavated in the last 6 weeks than in the previous 6 months" (without any actual distances quoted) - which fooled nobody!
With multiple shorter tunnels and much easier ground and access conditions, HS2 should be able to convince us it is making progress without an inch-by-inch commentary.

Eurotunnel could have done that without going public. And it’s 50.45km of tunnel, albeit not all under the channel :)
 

Mikey C

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It's good news. In rail projects, once you start tunnelling, you accrue sunk costs at an alarming rate (which insulate you somewhat from the wildly over-optimistic assumptions needed to get approval in the first place) - and increase the political embarrassment of cancelling the project.
I think there's zero chance of it being cancelled, certainly the first stage up to Birmingham then Crewe. I imagine they've spent a shed load of money already.

I suppose if they dug this first tunnel under the Chilterns, and then cancelled the project they could use it for a high speed service between Wendover and Denham :D
 
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Yindee8191

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I think there was an announcement fairly recently that they’d either spent or committed over 50% of the Phase 1 money, so cancellation is pointless at this point. That was a few months ago too iirc so it’s presumably more now.
 

TheHSRailFan

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Nice as that would be, I wouldn't be surprised if the antis found a way to use that information to disrupt progress. Such as by (admittedly highly unlikely!) drilling a borehole from ground level directly in the path of the TBM, and filling it with a material that would destroy the cutting head.
Considering how deep it goes and how easily they will be spotted easily, they won't go anywhere

Eurotunnel also did this, but it was a phone number with recorded message, updated weekly, listed each TBM, how much dug each week, total length from each start point for each of the 11 TBMs
Yes, I was told on twitter about this... I want to know what HS2 does though. If they leave us on a dead not on where the TBMs are then whats the point...
 
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The Crossrail web site TBM progress trackers were a bit "fanciful" in that they were updated infrequently, so a TBM would appear to not move for a few days/weeks then jump forward a significant amount.

Some of the HS2 Community Engagement publications had indicative timelines for TBM progress and/or offered date ranges for anticipated TBM arrival at the vent/intervention shafts. If nothing else, they might perhaps announce when those breakthroughs occur.

Here is a link to one such document... https://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/...m (Design) Event - A0 Boards_200819 Final.pdf

I ponder whether if enough Chiltern residents "worried" about the tunnels tens of meters below causing their homes to subside, (yeah yeah, I know it's nonsense,) pester HS2 about when they will be affected, maybe they will provide real time updates. At time of posting, there's a By-Election under way for the Chesham and Amersham constituency, so it may be that wannabe MP's make a lot of noise and get something done.
 

Flying Phil

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Having seen the "Start of drilling/boring" I hope there is a time-lapse video being taken, as seeing that machine disappear into the portal/ground will be fascinating.
 

city dweller

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A youtuber has posted a video from on a train passing at Curzon Street site.

 
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swt_passenger

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Thanks for posting that. For someone that doesn't live in Birmingham it gives a sense of the size and scale of the station project!
It also, when you look at the entire site, makes me think how irrelevant to the new station the small Curzon St block will be.
 

Geezertronic

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Just been to Melbicks Garden Nursery which is opposite the Birmingham Interchange site, and there's a lot of work going on at that site. The two new road bridges which will make a new roundabout to take traffic over HS2 are visible on the HS2 site, Northway Island is seeing some road changes and cannot currently be used the whole way around, looks like some good progress is being made there. Been a while since I have been down the A452 that way
 

city dweller

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Thanks for posting that. For someone that doesn't live in Birmingham it gives a sense of the size and scale of the station project!

These pics have been uploaded by HS2.

E1vGxkhXoAQ6jYK



E1vGxkdXMAIW7Rj
 

Jozhua

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It's good news. In rail projects, once you start tunnelling, you accrue sunk costs at an alarming rate (which insulate you somewhat from the wildly over-optimistic assumptions needed to get approval in the first place) - and increase the political embarrassment of cancelling the project.
Bahahahhaa, it is a Tory specialty to cancel a project once the sunk costs have built up massively!

Also doesn't stop them trying to descope Euston Station, for example.
 

zwk500

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Bahahahhaa, it is a Tory specialty to cancel a project once the sunk costs have built up massively!
It's not a Tory speciality at all, governments of all colours in many lands have a habit of cancelling projects once they realise the credit will be taken by their successors. It's rare for either major party in the UK to pull schemes completely once actual construction has happened - usually the detailed design is the last thing completed before they pull the plug.
Also doesn't stop them trying to descope Euston Station, for example.
Descoping a project to stay within budget (or nearer to it) is very different to canning a project halfway through building it.
 

LNW-GW Joint

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The ultimate double bluff on project cancellation was Concorde.
We insisted on a treaty with the French with a "no cancellation" clause, to prevent them doing it on us, and then found, to our chagrin, a decade into the project, that we couldn't cancel it either when we wanted to.
It was one of the reasons why the 1975 Channel Tunnel project was cancelled, as there was no such clause in that treaty.
 

Mikey C

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The ultimate double bluff on project cancellation was Concorde.
We insisted on a treaty with the French with a "no cancellation" clause, to prevent them doing it on us, and then found, to our chagrin, a decade into the project, that we couldn't cancel it either when we wanted to.
It was one of the reasons why the 1975 Channel Tunnel project was cancelled, as there was no such clause in that treaty.
i.e. cancelled by Labour after lots of sunk costs had been incurred ;)
 

Jozhua

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It's not a Tory speciality at all, governments of all colours in many lands have a habit of cancelling projects once they realise the credit will be taken by their successors. It's rare for either major party in the UK to pull schemes completely once actual construction has happened - usually the detailed design is the last thing completed before they pull the plug.

Descoping a project to stay within budget (or nearer to it) is very different to canning a project halfway through building it.
It's fair to point out that all UK governments are horrendously short sited, especially when it comes to infrastructure. New Labour were trash for it!

Descoping is still silly, especially when it is one platform at Euston, that will impact the utility of the entire rest of the project for minimal savings.
 

zwk500

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Descoping is still silly, especially when it is one platform at Euston, that will impact the utility of the entire rest of the project for minimal savings.
I agree the specific proposal to drop one platform at Euston is silly.
 

TheHSRailFan

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New satellite Uploaded onto the google servers. Most were taken back on April 4th this year but it's mainly around the Birmingham area.

Image 1: The future Birmingham Interchange station
Image 2: A (Poorly Drawn(sorry)) line showing the route of HS2 south-east of Lichfield and northeast of Sutton Coldfield
Image 3: A clearly seen road/path created by HS2 Ltd on the route of the line
1624068460520.png1624068721156.png1624068938074.png
(I thought uploading these would be a good idea since we don't really get much in terms of ground view)
There's a lot more change in the area but these are the bits that I was interested in most. Some imagery you won't get on google maps(the website) so its best to view this on Google Earth Pro.
 

Yindee8191

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Permanent construction has officially begun at Old Oak Common.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has launched the first permanent construction work at a HS2 station.

The Cabinet minister visited Old Oak Common, west London, which will be the UK’s largest railway station built in a single stage.

Preparatory work had already taken place at the 32-acre site, but construction of a 1.1-mile-long underground wall as part of the shell around six HS2 platforms began when Mr Shapps gave the signal for digging to begin on Wednesday.
 

LNW-GW Joint

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DfT has published an update on HS2 Phase 2a matters, following a consultation earlier this year.
These are mainly about the impact of construction work and environmental concerns.
hs2-phase-2a-government-response-consultation-west-midlands-to-crewe-web-version.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk)

One of the points being consulted on was the level of connections available to HS2 at Crewe when the line opens.
I thought this paragraph (4.28) was significant:
No decisions have yet been taken on the train services that will operate on the West Coast Main Line after the beginning of HS2 services. These decisions will be taken nearer the time, drawing on advice from the Shadow Operator and Great British Railways, and will be subject to public consultation
So whatever expectations people have about future WCML services after HS2 opens, nothing has been decided.
 

Domeyhead

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Bahahahhaa, it is a Tory specialty to cancel a project once the sunk costs have built up massively!

Also doesn't stop them trying to descope Euston Station, for example.
Wen you consider that it was a Labour Government that cancelled TSR2 and at a stroke destroyed Britain's place at the top of the defence aerospace industry there is no justification in trying to make party political capital out if the running of large programmes. The Common factor across all Governments are the departments and the senior civil servants within them cosily racking up their index linked pensions before retirng at 50 with golden handshakes and getting new jobs in some unheard of Quango 6 months later on even more money. Does anybody have any faith in the competence of the DFT or its various satrapies such as the ORR? I doubt there is a single senior executive in any TOC, FOC or Civil Engineering company who does.
 

Ethan1852

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Current TBM Status As of 1st July 2021

TBM NameTunnelling StatusLaunch date*^1Distance Tunnelled*^2Days Since Launch
FlorenceTunnelling13 May 2021360 Meters 0.223694 Miles49 Days
CeciliaTunnelling1 July 2021N/AToday

*^1 Might not be 100% correct. Based on HS2 Press releases.
*^2 Information from https://www.hs2.org.uk/in-your-area/map/#16/51.6130/-0.5241/filter=hs2-stations,hs2-network. Correct as of 30 June 2021.

HS2 have launched Cecilia - their second tunnel boring machine. This means both Chiltern TBMs are in the ground now.

Despite starting second, Cecilia will run slightly faster, aided by geological data fed back from Florence, meaning that both machines are due to break through at around the same time.
 
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Ethan1852

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Just out of interest where are you getting the 15metres/day figure from?


The TBMs excavating the chalk found under the Chilterns will operate round the clock for three years, advancing approximately 15 metres a day.


Each machine operates as a self-contained underground factory - digging the tunnel, lining it with concrete wall segments and grouting them into place at a speed of around 15 meters a day.


Designed specifically for the mix of chalk and flints under the Chilterns, the two identical TBMs are powered by zero carbon electricity and move at a speed of up to 15 metres a day.
 
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